LeEco founder Jia Yueting steps down as CEO of Leshi

LeEco’s founder Jia Yueting has stepped down as chief executive of Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing at a time when the company is facing cash issues with rapid expansion plans.

Jia will, however, retain his position as chairman, with the company’s finance chief, Yang Lijie also getting replaced, according to a stock exchange filing on Sunday. Liang Jun, a Leshi vice president who joined the company five years ago from Lenovo, will take over the CEO position while Zhang Wei, its China CFO steps into Lijie shoes who is resigning for personal reasons.

LeEco recently raised almost $2.2 billion from new investors including Tianjin Jiarui Huixin Corporate Management Company and Sunac China Holdings, but another major backer decided to cut its losses.

The tech giant faced a cash crunch last year that Jia said was the result of aggressive growth plans, with the company subsequently seeking billions of dollars in new funding, cutting staff and abandoning a deal to acquire U.S. television maker Vizio.

To deal with the cash crunch, LeEco sold off land that it had bought from Yahoo to set up American offices at a profit of $10 million. It also heavily scaled down its operations in India and let go off about 85 percent of the staff.